You have a vision of a better life. That vision paints a remarkable life populated with financial independence, exotic vacations, and Caribbean homes.

But the rub is that you have to work hard. You must work really hard to obtain your dreams. But you don’t.

Marlon Wayans explains that success is not a destination, but the road that you're on. Being successful means that you're working hard and walking your walk every day. You can only live your dream by working hard towards it. That's living your dream.

In my case, it’s not the lack of want in doing the hard work; it’s something more primal. The internal dialogue of what Steven Pressfield calls the Resistance is what kept me from working hard. My conversation with Resistance sound like this:

Are you good enough?

Who do you think you are?

Do any of those statements sound eerily familiar to you?

The horrifying discovery is that Resistance cannot be defeated. It’s an ever-present bastard whose mission is to destroy you. But Tony Robbins has a few strategies that you might be able to leverage and keep Resistance at bay.

Determine if your goal is a must. Ask yourself what will your life look like if you do to push past your fear.

Recognize the excuses. When an excuse pops into your head, become cognizant of your brain’s tendency for using excuses.

Adopt a growth mindset. You give up on a goal because you believe that reaching the goal is beyond your abilities. Instead start planning on how you will bridge that gap.

Pain brings valuable insight. Regret, despondency, dissatisfaction — these failures must be used as a means of reflecting and asking, “Why did this not work?”

Know that failure is inevitable. Failure is an influential part of the journey. Many successful individuals will tell you that their best ideas were born out of failure.

Achieving your dreams is a process of learning from your failures and creating systems that help you succeed. If you understand that, then the journey to a better life is closer than you think.